2 weeks of living

Been an especially interesting past week. Last weekend, my Soph. year of college roomate, Jeremy, got married:

It was a blast and heck I even got teary-eyed at one point (during his brother's toast, that was phucking awesome GL!), but Deb (his awesome wife) didn't get the memo that there had to be at least one single woman invited to the wedding, damn I had a king sized bed that night too....

I also did something which wasn't too good, though I'll admit I was hanging out with my trouble-making friend, Jim Beam, and his friend Ginger at the time, as I walked off with a book by Sir Francis Bacon (it was located in a bookroom at the place which was rented for the reception). I hate to admit it, but I'm not feeling guilty that the book's now in my posession. I'm already becoming enlightened from the wicked hard to read, but passionate writings of the dude, plus it was only collecting dust on the bookshelf (also with no fine ladies to talk or dance with, what's a solo dude to do, but read Sir Francis Bacon during a wedding reception?)

OK, back to there not being any single women at the wedding, I did some calling around and complaining with my lady friends and they were all like, "if we are invited to a wedding, we always invite some dude to go with us, even if we aren't dating." SERIOUSLY WTF, yes one more, WTF are chics smoking these days? Are they trying to stay single forever? Who's ever heard of going to a wedding with just some random dude or even ex-boyfriend for that matter just so you have someone to go with? Weddings aren't the phucking prom, it's ok to show up unattached, actually it should be mandatory unless their's a ring of defense involved (aka wedding band)! Haven't they noticed weddings are the best place to meet single dudes?

OK, rant finished...

My work week was brutal this week. My co-worker rockstar was partying it up with company execs down in Palm Springs, while I was trying my best not to get my licenses revoked, ah, but all is well and forgotten when my backs to the door walking away at 6:30pm tonight. Looking forward to some type of bike riding tomorrow. Don't know if I want to do my first helterskelter Ambler ride tomorrow or give it another week. If you ever want to see what a People's Plaza World Championship ride would look like with 50 people (40 of whom are sketchballs) come do this ride behind the Art Museum at 9am on Saturdays. Just ride at the front or else...

Oh well, time to either head out or hit the bed. Hope everyone will enjoy the fine weather tomorrow.

Ride on!

-BC

And I just thought they grew bananas

US Charges Chiquita With Doing Business With Terror Grp; Co Confirms $25M Fine Payment Under Plea Pact With Gov - DJ (12.75 -0.25) -Update-
Co was charged Wednesday with doing business with a terrorist organization - a right-wing militia in Colombia. Court documents filed Wednesday are an indication the co has settled a lengthy Justice Department investigation into its financial dealings with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. Federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based co and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers did business with the group, which is described in court documents as a violent right-wing organization that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group. Details of the settlement were not included in court documents. But Chiquita said last month it had set aside $25 mln to resolve the dispute. The co said the investigation involved a former subsidiary that made payments under pressure to ensure the safety of its employees. The payments were approved by senior executives at Chiquita, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Corporate books were kept to conceal the deals, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Chiquita began paying the right-wing AUC after a meeting in 1997. "No later than in or about September 2000, defendant Chiquita's senior executives knew that the corporation was paying AUC and that the AUC was a violent paramilitary organization," prosecutors wrote in Wednesday's court filing. The co also did business with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, according to prosecutors.

Damn! The next thing we'll hear is that Disney did business with the Cali' cartel.

I thought I recognized dat ass

After working out this morning (yes I should have been riding, I know...) and stretching on a mat at the Philly Sports Club, I look into the mirror and see a butt I think I recognize, jogging on a treadmill about 30 feet away. This was totally weird as I'm not a butt guy, I'm not always checking out ladies butts like most guys. I'd rather see if they know how to smile, as that's pretty important in life compared with some kind of butt.
Anyways, the next 5 minutes I'm trying not to get caught staring at this unique butt, but I swear it looks like my ex-gf (no not lady friend, but ex-gf, as a lady friend is as Biz Markie would say "Just a Friend"). So after I finished stretching I made it a point to walk at an angle so I could see if it was her, and sure enough it was. I even told her I recognized her by her butt, and for some reason she thought that was normal and didn't blink an eye. Heck she actually felt good knowing that I was checking out some possibly random girl's butt!
She's doing well, which makes me happy, as nothing's shittier in life than breaking up with someone and seeing them down in the dirt for long.

It ended up just being the start to a really weird day today. Philly's such a small feeling town now, it's starting to feel like Delaware, which is crazy since Philly alone is 2x the size of the whole state of DE.

Anyone else feeling all jacked up from this time change thing? From my sleep patterns to my eating patterns, I'm totally jacked up right now.

OH and I'm playing the CNBC stock game right now. It's so funny how a big drop can take the players out before some (like me) even put money to work. I'm ranked in the top 81%, otherwords I suck as you want to be top 1%, but considering I haven't bought a damn thing, it's crazy how many people are worse than me.

Jeremy's Bachelor Party

Hit Baltimore yesterday for some rockin' out with one of my good friends and college roomate Jeremy and all of his other friends yesterday. We were so lucky to have such beautiful weather as we hit Camden yards first

and had a 2 hour tour through every possible place you could think of there. It was wicked cool as since the season hasn't started, our group of 10 were the only people there.

That's my buddy Jeremy on the right and one of his best friends Mike, on the left. Mike owns the Evergreen Cafe next to Loyola College in B-more. He's an avid cyclist, so definitely give him a hello if you are ever in town as he runs a kick ass coffee shop and loves cycle talk.

We then hit Brewer's Art for some drinks before heading down to Fells Point for dinner at DuClaws and then more drinks at The Admirals Cup. I'll be honest and admit I enjoyed my 3rd tasty beer ever (Tiny Tim) at Brewer's Art. Also another wicked cool place to check out if you are ever in B-more. Brewer's Art has a restuarant above, but the bar below is in an old wine cellar and wicked cool.
I think I heard of them before from a write up on Resurection Ale by Buddy.

Isn't that fixie sweet? It was one of the most beautiful bikes I've seen in a really long time. I'm glad I saw it, as it's the closest I got to any fine bike (or anything pink for that matter) on this beautiful weekend.

Ride on,

-BC

Anyone Else read PezCyclingNews.com?

or do you just check the daily distractions?: http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=dds/dds07/distractions-mar07

Get the lube ready

For some bike porn:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2007/shows/nahmbs07/?id=/photos/2007/tech/shows/nahmbs07/nahmbs073/gallery-nahmbs073

I've been checking out a few picks every day. It's amazing how beautiful each bike is!

Ride on,

-BC

Collegiate Road Races in Philly this weekend

Dude, did anyone see this? I haven't seen a blip on any of the listserves....http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/mar07/mar07news
It's the last article on the days list. It's talking about the Collegiate Road Races in Philly this weekend.

Wow, had a busy few days the past week or so. Rocked out this past Friday forr my B-day by going on a dual night out with a buddy and also going on a blind date. It was really quite an experience and a fun time at that.

Met up with my buddy and neighbor Nick and then we headed up to Northern Libs (my first time EVER there) to meet up with this mysterious lady. We got to the bar, "North 3rd" and grabbed a drink and settled down for a bit. The ladies were out in effect and were just like Nick said. Cool, friendly, artsy and professional was the scene, plus it was just table after table of them just chilling waiting for skinny bike studs to talk to. North 3rd had many a fine beer on tap (Nick would say that as I don't drink beer, sorry! Read http://bikesandbeer.blogspot.com/ for your beer satisfaction). I had my typically Jim (beam) and Ginger, which this place seemed to know how to make and also to make cheaply. Just an FYI. A Jim and Ginger will cost you 16 mothaphunk'n dollars at the Continental, but 4 fitty in North Libs. That's a mighty good deal if you ask me. Plus the bartender (Oh yes she was so nice and tender!) doesn't have that Center City attitude of being almost too cool to serve you a drink. The food looked crazy good too. If I was secret food spy "FM" I would have been there to capture a pic for you all, but alas, I'm still learning how to use the camera.

So after getting that first drink, I texted the surprise-lady to let her know I was at the bar she recommended. And of course, some uber hottie a few people away pics up her cell and starts reading a text, so I was like "dude, Nick, there's the chick." and went up to her and was like, hey, I'm BC" She was like, ahhh, ok... I was like, didn't I just text you? She was like, "NO, WTF are you talking about?" I was like OK and started walking away and she was like, hey I'm so and so, and started talking to me. It was the funniest thing as my buddy Nick was at the bar and totally thought this was the chic I was meeting up as she had tons of hot friends with her, but alas, it was not to be.

We eventually caught up with the surprise-lady, had a few drinks with her and her friends and then rolled to McGillans in CC, where the crowd was rowdy from some kick ass karaoking. The ladies in McG's were insanely hot. Everytime I'm there I never expect it, as the pub's one of the oldest in the city and I just always expect an older crowd, as it's far away from all the hip places on Walnut St. I immediately signed up to do one of my fav. 80's songs, wishing my boy CV from DE was able to rock out with me, I don't know of anyone more fun than Mr. Vann when it comes to Karaoke. He knows pretty much every commonly known song word for word. McGillans was a damn good time, though I was kicking myself for inviting the mystery lady out with Nick and I, as we would have had an insane time with all the fine single ladies there and this lady was sticking to me like butter on toast (as Biggie smalls would've said). We rocked out until about 1, when the m-l decided to roll and then Nick and I rolled out to find something to grub. Unfortunately, indecision was the killer and by the time we decided where to go, it was closing down and we called it a night.

Luckily, for the first time since I've been in Philly, I realized the importance of drinking water with a good drink or two. So I was up and at it early on Sat. to get an early train down to DE so I could go for a sweet road ride before my grandfather's 91st b-day party. That was a blast to see him as just a month ago he was on oxygen and now he's doing better and off of it, and back to his same ol' cool self. I ended up having a wicked fun day of riding and catching up with family in DE.

Sunday was a BC (getting) smack(ed) down ride on the road with my Sunday MTB. posse. I totally got my ass handed to me every time the riding got tough. Colin and Christian (my muslim brotha) would always let me feel like a rockstar, pushing it at the start of a climb, only to do the smackdown 1/2 way up and leave me waaaay behind them. I kept the head up, but that's all. Good strong weekend of riding, it felt great to push myself with a group on the road again. I'm bummed I won't be able to be smacked this coming weekend, but happily one of my bestest of friends from college is having his Bachelor party in Baltimore. Let's hope for no snow tonight!

Ride on playas.

-BC